News

Hundreds of Wrong DUI Search Warrants?

(WRDW/WAGT, 9/20/2017)...the deputy went down to the courthouse to get a warrant to involuntarily draw Beasley’s blood to test his blood alcohol level.
The problem? Court records show a judge never signed off on that, an employee at the city clerk’s office did.Continue reading

(WBUR, 9/19/2017)Massachusetts' highest court ruled Tuesday that field sobriety tests typically used in drunken-driving cases cannot be treated as conclusive evidence that a motorist was operating under the influence of marijuana.Continue reading

Fentanyl linked to thousands of urban overdose deaths

(The Washington Post, 8/15/2017)What he’s actually getting in Philadelphia’s notorious open-air drug market is heroin laced with an even more potent additive, often in unpredictable amounts that even antidotes can’t stop from being deadly. That narcotic, increasingly spliced into the nation’s illicit drug supply, is fentanyl, a synthetic painkiller exacerbating heroin’s deadly trap. In cities across America, it is fueling deeper addiction and has become one of the most prominent killers linked to the nation’s drug crisis.Continue reading

First-time DWI offenders getting 'second chance' with new Texas law

(KENS, 6/20/2017)A new Texas law recently signed by Governor Greg Abbott is allowing people a "second chance," especially first-time DWI offenders. The law provides a way for people to have their DWI sealed from public view, which would include potential employers.Continue reading

Utah faces backlash over unprecedented drunk driving law

(CBS News, 6/01/2017)Utah faces growing opposition over a newly-passed drunk driving law that lowers the legal blood alcohol limit from 0.08 to 0.05. That makes it the lowest threshold in the nation, and the law is set to go into effect late next year. Continue reading

Repeat drunk driver gets 60 years for murder by vehicle

(MySA.com, 09/10/2016)Zachary Lenius, a former gang member with multiple arrests for robberies and drunk driving, begged for leniency from a jury Friday that earlier found him guilty of killing a motorist in a 2014 head-on collision on O’Connor Road.Continue reading

Synthetic Narcotics Spark New Look at Drugged- Driving Laws

(Associated Press, 05/01/2016)Eighteen-year-old Kristin Roggio was riding in a friend's car when another driver careened across a Brooklyn street, colliding head-on and killing her. That driver had inhaled aerosol dust cleaner moments before to get high, and prosecutors say he was impaired enough to be charged with vehicular manslaughter.Continue reading

Addiction now defined as brain disorder, not behavior issue

(NBC News, 04/20/2016)Addiction is a chronic brain disorder and not simply a behavior problem involving alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex, experts contend in a new definition of addiction, one that is not solely related to problematic substance abuse.Continue reading

High Court Expresses Doubts About Drunken Driving Laws

(The New York Times, 04/20/2016)WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The Supreme Court is expressing doubts about laws in at least a dozen states that make it a crime for people suspected of drunken driving to refuse to take alcohol tests.Continue reading

Nebraska Supreme Court reinstates man's DUI conviction

(Star Herald, 04/08/2016)OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court reinstated a man's drunken driving conviction on Friday in a reversal of last year's Nebraska Court of Appeals ruling that found his constitutional rights had been violated.Continue reading

Appeals court reinstates DWI charges against Baylor employee, husband

(WacoTriv.com, 04/08/2016)An intermediate appeals court has reinstated the drunken-driving cases against a Baylor University employee and her husband, ruling the judge who dismissed the misdemeanor cases last year had no authority to do so.Continue reading

The promise and pitfalls of online sobriety programs

(The Daily Dot, 03/17/2016)“Hi, I’m Kelly, and I’m an alcoholic.” It doesn’t quite have the same impact when it’s typed into a computer screen.Continue reading

(Minnesota Star Tribune, 10/13/2015)The Minnesota Court of Appeals, raising constitutional concerns, overturned the conviction Tuesday of a man sentenced to five years in prison for refusing to submit to a blood test after he was arrested in Ramsey County for drunken driving in 2012.Continue reading

New Report Urges National, State Action on Drugged Driving:First look at drugged driving, its impact on traffic safety and what states can do

(Governors Highway Safety Association, 09/30/2015)WASHINGTON, D.C. – Drug use by drivers is a mounting concern, particularly in light of more permissive marijuana laws (now legal for medical use in D.C. and 23 states and recreational use in four states and D.C.1) and an increase in prescription drug abuse (the amount of prescription painkillers dispensed in the U.S. has quadrupled since 19992). Any drug – whether illegal, filled by a prescription, or over-the-counter – can impair a person’s ability to safely operate a vehicle.Continue reading

(The Hays Daily News, 10/05/2015)TOPEKA — Topeka defense attorney Doug Wells said a Kansas criminal statute imposing jail time on a motorist who refuses an officer’s request to undergo tests to show whether he’s been drinking or has drugs on board should be overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court.Continue reading

(Washington Post, 09/30/2015)Police said Ronald Hayes Jr. was high on drugs and alcohol and desperate to escape officers in Prince George’s County, Md., when he ran a red light and smashed into the side of a minivan filled with women and children, killing two of them.Continue reading

Appeals court reverses DWI conviction

(PostBulletin.com, 08/17/2015)

ST. PAUL — A Rochester man has had his gross misdemeanor DWI conviction reversed on a state appeal. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled last month that the police officer who stopped Maurice Antwan Hegwood's vehicle early Feb. 17, 2013 — a stop that led to a DWI charge — didn't have a "reasonable" suspicion of criminal activity.

Kentucky Sued In Federal Court Over Drug Treatment Practices

(Huffington Post, 03/12/2015)

Two law firms have teamed up to file a federal lawsuit against the state of Kentucky for its practice of forbidding opiate addicts from receiving medical treatment while under the supervision of the criminal justice system.

Court overturns Arlington man's conviction in boy's DWI death

(Fort Worth Star Telegram, 02/21/2015)

FORT WORTH - The 2nd Court of Appeals has overturned an Arlington man’s conviction for killing a 10-year-old boy and injuring his mother while driving drunk because his blood was improperly drawn for testing.